For almost 17 years I taught the
Youth class here at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church (MPBC) and for 2
years served as Associate Pastor with responsibility for all Youth
and Children activities. However, as the years went along I had to
stop and think and really take an honest and objective look at the
results we were getting and had gotten over the past 17 years. In
all honesty, I was disappointed in what I was seeing. I had also
during that time become convinced we do not need more programs, more
bells and whistles or more activities. I was seeing statistics put
out by George Barna and Josh McDowell that showed we were losing our
Christian young people by and large by the time they turned 20 years
of age. Why? Well there are a myriad of reasons, but I became
convinced we must raise the bar and integrate our young adults
(teens) into the total life of the church.

The Lord began
to reveal to me that in order to hold on to our young adults, we
needed to concentrate our full, undivided attention on holding them
responsible and accountable for their attitudes and behaviors. For
sure, I knew some people wouldn’t understand. But on the other hand,
I knew what the Lord was showing me in His Word regarding moving
children to adulthood.